Wild Tobago

Anjani Ganase joins the team to survey coral reefs which innovates a process that allows scientists to monitor the health of corals The experience on Heron Island working on my master’s research led to the opportunity to map coral reefs of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) for the XL Catlin Seaview Survey. This project had two main purposes: outreach, by bringing coral reefs to people using 360-degree imagery to create an immersive learning experience. The second purpose was scientific using the camera technology to create one of the largest visual baselines of the Great Barrier Reef from which researchers extract information on reef composition and study the spatial patterns of this expansive reef system. For me, it was the ultimate dream job. As the marine technician, I was tasked with collecting all the imagery and associated data for all the sites during the four-month excursion from the Southern Great Barrier Reef to the Far North GBR and Coral Sea. It was ...

Anjani Ganase continues to relate her journey to ocean scientist. She spends eight months on Heron Island and lives among the creatures who feel safe there. I thought that the island I grew up on was small. Then I moved to a tiny island called Heron Island in the Southern Great Barrier Reef for eight months to study the impacts of climate change on corals. I thought my island upbringing would prepare me for the sea life, but this opportunity to study coral reefs came with a full immersive experience of living in the marine environment. Heron Island is a two-hour boat ride from the mainland (Gladstone) of Australia and sits in the outer Great Barrier Reef. Heron Island, about 800 m long and 300 m wide, and as the name suggests, houses a colony of herons among other marine birds such as sooty shearwaters and noddy terns. As lovely as this sounds, no one mentioned the eye-watering smell of bird guano or the haunting sounds of hooting shearwaters in the night – the h...

Dr Anjani Ganase, coral reef ecologist, looks at the bleak picture through the lens of the degradation of coral reefs worldwide, and what we must do to reverse the trend towards an unsustainable existence.   El Niño climate conditions aggravated by man-made global heating caused mass bleaching on coral reefs in the northern hemisphere during the summer of 2023, and brought devastation and mortality to reefs throughout the Caribbean. In Tobago, above average temperatures persisted for three months (September to November 2023). Over the past month, these conditions have delivered a deadly blow to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Anomalously high ocean temperatures have been washing over the reefs for at least ten weeks, similar to the heat waves experienced in Caribbean.   Initial reports from the Australian Institute of Marine Science who conducted aerial surveys state that broadscale mass bleaching has occurred along the shallow reefs in the impa...

  Dr Anjani Ganase talks about die-off of the most vulnerable creatures on the planet to global warming - corals.   Bleaching is happening today and on the coral reefs around Tobago; and this planetary indicator does not bode well for humanity.   Over the past week, marine scientists from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority have observed coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). Certain areas are being described as severe, particularly along the central GBR near Townsville, a community largely dependent on the reef ecosystem for jobs and livelihoods. This year (possibly for the first time) the reefs are experiencing above average warming conditions, despite being in a La Niña phase. La Niña is associated with higher rainfall and cloud cover, conditions associated with cooling oceanic conditions. Nevertheless, many parts of the central and southern sections of the GBR are experiencing 0.5 - 2 degrees Celsius above the average temperature, while the nort...

Satellite imagery provides new ways to see and monitor coral reefs. Dr Anjani Ganase tells us where we can see halos, what they mean and how they may help in on-going monitoring programmes for marine protected areas.  Through the technology that provides satellite imagery of the earth, we can explore the planet from above. The surface of the earth is covered by impressive structures and patterns curated by man and nature: consider the meandering tributaries of the Colorado and Amazon Rivers, the Great Barrier Reef and cities like New York. The patterns observed from space have given great insights into landscape ecosystems, such as the arrangements of flora along mountainsides and the contraction of the polar ice caps. We are also able to see some distance below the surface of the sea. Here’s what Dr Elizabeth Madin, assistant professor at the University of Hawai`i, observed in the lagoon of Heron Island, on the Great Barrier Reef. Shallow patches of coral reef stood out ...

Anjani Ganase, marine biologist, looks into the world of coral reefs at some of the residents in these undersea cities. Down there, she says, it’s noisier than you think! When we dive along coral reefs, we glimpse moments in the lives of the fish and marine creatures bustling about on their daily routines in underwater coral cities. At first glance, movements may appear arbitrary, but as you observe for a minute or two we start to recognise the activity the fish is carrying out, whether it is foraging or simply hiding out. However, for more rare activities or seasonal movements, such as at dawn or dusk or during mating season, this would require longer, more consistent times spent looking into the secret lives of fish. Here are a few observations of some reef fish behaviours: Hunting buddies, the grouper and the moray eel Grouper ( Plectropomus pessuliferus ) and Giant Moray Eel ( Gymnothorax javanicus ) make an excellent partnership for hunting on the coral reefs. How ...

Anjani Ganase, marine biologist, returns to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. In this feature, she warns that we ignore climate change to our peril. In about week’s time, I’ll be heading out by boat on my final expedition to survey the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) before I return to the Caribbean. This will be the fourth time exploring the GBR, since I first came to Australia five years ago. The GBR was my first home in Australia. I lived on a research station on tiny Heron Island, located in the southern GBR. I lived on Heron Island for about six months, working on experiments to see the effect of extreme temperatures on corals. During this time, I explored the reefs, viewed migrating whales and followed nesting and hatching turtles on the beach, where the GBR is also their home. After Heron, I got the dream job as part of a research expedition, surveying the rest of the Great Barrier Reef. Over the next four months my home became a boat and my office the largest cora...

This week, Anjani Ganase, marine biologist, shares new knowledge about Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. With a relatively newer history, Caribbean reefs and first peoples may have information important to survival on our islands; it’s time to observe and research our own environment and record the traditional stories. This feature was first published in the Tobago Newsday, on Thursday November 3, 2016. Follow Anjani on twitter @AnjGanase The Great Barrier Reef (GBR), one of the largest natural structures on planet Earth, is visible from space. This natural wonder is about 2300 km long and 344 400 km 2 in area, larger than the UK, Switzerland and The Netherlands combined. It is one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, home to as many as 6000 marine organisms, including species of corals, invertebrates, fish, marine mammals, sharks and turtles.   The reef is also ancient, over 500,000 years old; over this time the edge of Australia’s continental shelf and th...